How did this happen?
“Move pony pup,”
Wasn’t this supposed to be a world of magic where everypony is nice to one another?
The binding on her wings chafed and her entire body ached as she forced it past the limit to pull the mining cart.
She was the sister of the Pegasus who would grow up to be the Element of Loyalty and one of the fastest flyers in Equestria.
Her hoof met a sharp rock and she bit back the whimper at the sudden pain and the wet feeling of blood, the thought of the wound getting disinfected pushed away at the warning growl in her direction for pausing.
She was born in a city known for its weather control and founded by one of the Equestrian Founders in an event now celebrated as Hearth’s Warming.
The dust filled air made her want to cough even as she came to the marked spot and picked up the pickaxe to dig at the wall.
Was this an alternate version of Equestria? Or is this something the show could not have touched upon?
The back of her jaw ached, and she knew that some of her teeth would fall out from the abuse they’ve endured (good thing they were baby teeth.)
Why had she been reincarnated in this world, in the Loyalty Bearer’s family, who cast her aside for something she could not control?
A purple gem fell to the ground and detaching the cart from her back, she picked it and several others that had fallen out and placed them with the scant number of gems she had in the small cart they had given her.
She wished she hadn’t been born as a Pegasus, in fact, she wished that she hadn’t been reborn at all.
They threw a shovel in her direction and she obediently picked it up and started digging, ignoring the rotted wood that was in her mouth. No doubt she would have to pick out splinters later.
Her sister had seen that that stallion bind her wings and did nothing, her parents did nothing as he assured them she would see the error of her ways by the end of summer.
She spent thirty minutes digging a hole before they barked at her to dig another one, laughing as she stumbled over her aching hooves to obey them.
Rainbow Dash ignored her pleading look, the filly touching her left ear which looked as if something had cut the tip off, causing North to flinch back as realization dawned that maybe, her sister hadn’t forgiven her after all.
Her wings were begging to be released from their confines, and she could hear the canines behind her contemplating tearing them off so she could fly to the ceiling to get more gems.
The betrayal, the hurt tore up inside of her as she watched her family turn away from her to go back inside the house, her uncle’s hoof around her shoulders feeling heavy and forbidding.
Even if they took the bindings off, she won’t fly, because she had sworn never to use her wings again. She would never feel the air beneath her wings, but that was fine, because she would never fly, not with her Pegasus magic.
“Still think you do not deserve punishment?” he continued on before she could defend herself, “It is abominations like you that make it difficult for us Pegasus to uphold peace in Equestria, best to have those accursed wings restrained lest you do something worse’
‘It had been an accident!’ she wanted to tell him, tell anybody, she hadn’t meant to hurt anyone!
She’s been here for three weeks with no sign of him returning, and she’s pretty sure the bindings were not supposed to be on this long.
The canine that met them at the mine looked nothing like the Diamond Dogs she remembered in the show, in fact, he resembled more of a Rottweiler and the gem on his collar wasn’t a Diamond but a dark red ruby.
Apparently Diamond Dogs were just one kind of bipedal sentient canine around and inside Equestria, just like how ponies had three (known) tribes, the Jewel Dogs had four: Diamonds, Rubies, Sapphires, and Emeralds. Her uncle had placed her with the Ruby Dogs of whom apparently, he held a debt with.
“We do not do pup labor,” the Ruby Dog, who she later learned was Pico, had not been impressed upon her uncle revealing his reason for being there.
She didn’t know what he did to persuade the canine, having been pushed into the mine lift where another Ruby dog was giving her glances that she did not like.
Pico entered the elevator and had a conversation with the other canine she couldn’t understand but that seemed to displease them both. The Ruby dog marched out of the mine lift and they left her alone with Pico who didn’t spare her a glance as he took them down.
Her second hole bore fruits of her labor and she was able to fill her mine cart up to the bare minimum before she was urged to hurry up.
He gave her the smallest cart and stared at her bound wings with an unreadable expression but said nothing as he led her to an alcove where other Ruby dogs were having a lunch break, albeit a messy one.
“Take cart to Cas, then report to out duty,” she gave a small grimace but obeyed, approaching the Ruby Dog with a close resemblance to a German Shepherd.
“I met the mark,” he gave her a disinterested glance, inspecting her cart and waving his paw for her to leave it with the others.
“This Wind Scar’s niece, North Wind, she works under Cas to pay off Scar’s debts as mine worker,” he said this in a warning tone as some of the canines had given her a look upon learning who she was related to.
She passed other ponies working in the mines, some not even looking at her, though one paused in his work to leer at her, only for a Ruby Dog to smack him back into working.
None of the Ruby Dogs were happy that she was there, apparently their desires for debts paid off did not extend to filly-pups doing the work.
She kept going till she reached a room where a horrible stench was visible as a Ruby Dog came out. He bared his teeth at her in a smug sneer, wiping his paws on the packed dirt beneath them.
Ignoring him, she entered the ‘out’ room, one of many in this long cavern, and picking up the only shovel, she went to work.
All the pony workers were relegated to clean up duty in these rooms, none of the canines wanted to do it as it was a chore reserved for the lowest on the food chain.
In this case it was the ponies.
Despite three weeks of doing this, the smell still hit her, at least she had stopped throwing up from the smell despite it being so close to her muzzle.
She really needed to learn how to use the shovel without it being in her mouth, but despite it being five years since she was reborn, there were parts of her body that she was still getting used to.
It was embarrassing, but it took her quite a bit to figure out how to ‘grasp’ objects with her hooves, and her mouth writing was still a mess (she didn’t care that she was only five, it still wasn’t an excuse.)
The only upside she could find to this chore was that certain ponies found their ‘interest’ in her gone in favor of turning away (the canines didn’t express interest in her despite that harrowing first day.) But she had the sinking feeling that it was not going to deter them forever.
One of the lone female canines appeared and grabbed her around the middle as soon as she left the out room.
“Come, time for bath,” they weren’t rough with handling her, but they weren’t all that gentle either.
A river ran through parts of the mine, but they didn’t directly bathe in it for health reason, instead several workers were put to work gathering water into large buckets over a fire and a trough.
One was supposed to wipe off as much as possible with the trough before going into the hot water, and this was only allowed once a week for each group.
The bindings around her midriff were worn down and stained, unable to be washed at all.
“Still not off?” the Ruby female gave her bindings a frown, clearly displeased, “Much work need done on ceiling, you only flying pony, no magic ponies allowed,” apparently unicorns had to pay off their debt through other means as their debtors did not have the means to stop them from wielding magic against them.
North didn’t bother telling her that she couldn’t fly, even if she dreaded the moment the bindings did come off. But flying was out of the question, no matter how much it angered them.
The Ruby canine, whose name still hadn’t been given, led North to the mess hall which was empty except at the back where various workers were setting up dinner. A dark blue griffin was preparing dead chickens, an Earth pony was stirring a large pot of soup, and to her dismay, the pony that had leered at her was working on the dough for the rolls. A large Ruby Dog with a black lab resemblance grinding up some sort of rock, looking up when she was dropped in front of her.
“Eat then cook,” a bowl of undetermined soup was placed in front of her along with a chunk of bread, no doubt leftovers from the day before.
Being a picky eater in her previous life, soup was one of the main foods she did not touch at all.
In this life up till the mines she managed to avoid eating soup with her family (if only because they barely cook it except for ‘fancy’ dinners.) Now she had no choice but to eat it, otherwise her malnutrition would be worse than it is becoming with the lack of necessary vitamins.
Making quick work of the soup (and trying not to think of the ingredients) and bread, she joined the black lab canine who placed several strange mushrooms in front of her along with a knife.
“Cut mushrooms for pony soup when done eating,” there was a sneer in the canine’s voice at ‘pony soup’ and North quickly finished her food, not wanting to make them impatient and began cutting.
She spent the next hour cutting all sorts of mushrooms, some that had a slight greenish glow to and others that had strange shapes. The sole griffin in the mine was right next to her, which she didn't mind, even if the scars on his back and the missing right wing was a bit scary. He never glared or glowered at her, rather treated her indifferently which she preferred to the interest of her 'fellow' ponies. The smell of boiling chicken wasn't all that appetizing but vague memories of what it tasted like made her hungry all the more and curse the fact she was born as a herbivore, who knows what chicken would do to her system.
"Stop," the command had all of them dropping their cooking utensils, "Leave, supper time for us," they all left, the griffin actually walking alongside her which had the added benefit of keeping that one stallion from following them. She stopped at the room they had given her, apart from all the others, and turned to her companion.
"Thank-you," he tilted his head, amber eyes focusing on her,
"Keeping yourself bound is not the best way to deal with your fears," with that he disappeared into his own alcove and she went into hers, pondering at his words.
Early the next morning she stared at the ceiling, mind swirling as she tried to think of anything, anything to get out of this.
Could she get away with telling them she’s not old enough to fly? No, that won’t work, they’ll make her fly anyway.
Say she’s crippled? No, she has both wings and they wouldn’t buy that either.
Maybe outright tell them that she doesn’t want to use her Pegasus magic at all? Even the thought of their reactions made her shiver.
If only she could get a bit of cloud into the mines and climb on top of it to get to the top, but there’s no way she’d be able to get a piece of the clouds to do it.
Some sort of ladder? No, waste of resources.
Trying not to panic visibly and wake any Ruby dogs within hearing distance, she turned on her oil lamp, grabbed a broom and started sweeping.
Normally all the pony workers were supposed to sleep in the same room, but instead due to her ‘special status’ as Wind Scar’s niece; they had placed her in a really, old storage room filled with scrolls and dust all over. By the end of this three months sentence they wanted the room spick and span to make way for whatever. Reading the scrolls proved useless as they were in Ruby dog language, which apparently not even the Ruby dogs could read. Reading or writing hadn’t exactly been a top priority for Ruby Dogs when they were more focused on production.
So, all North could do was sweep till the floor was the clear rock it was supposed to be, and to make sure there were no creatures hiding in any holes. She also practiced sweeping bipedal, ignoring the pain in her back in favor of a more familiar position.
Her blue wings itched to fly, and she flinched as the worn bindings around them starting giving, when before it they felt like a corset a size too small around her barrel.
‘No’ she told her wings, she was not going to fly, she was never going to fly. As if in protest, her wings twitched and with terror she watched the magic binding spark as cracks appeared.
“No, no," that cursed magic was trying to get out and she knew that she will not be able to control it.
No matter what she did the next few days trying to keep her wings calm didn't work and more and more cracks appeared in the binds.
Something the others noticed, the canines even going so far as to put down notes of her doing flying practice.
Unfortunately or not, that earth pony or Corn Husker as he's called, his obsession with her ended up changing everything. The last of her binding was hanging by a thread and she was hiding in the cavern trying to focus on sweeping, sweat on her brow as she felt the whirlpool in her grow.
“So, enjoying your special treatment,” the voice made her freeze mid-sweep as she turned to Corn Husker who was giving her a smug grin, “No more avoiding me brat,” she tried to swing the broom at him but he smacked it away, his Earth Pony strength splitting it in two. Backpedaling, she tried to find the nearest exit, but he was blocking it with his body.
“You know, before you came here, I was thinking about your dear uncle and how I owe him so much,” his hoof reached in to caress her face and she shivered, “After all, he’s the reason I got trapped down here, why my own family disowned me, why I have to bow down to these mutts,” his face turned into a malicious sneer, his eyes flashing with disgust. His hoof came to her neck and she cringed as it slid down to the spot between her feathers.
“Then I saw you, the resemblance so uncanny, and thought, well he isn’t here, but somepony like him is, and you are such an adorable little filly,” she had known he had unsavory intentions towards her, but it was one thing knowing it, and another thing for it to actually happen.
‘Get away, get away’ she mentally chanted this as his other hoof came towards her, she turned to run but his hoof snagged on the cloth and with a frustrated grunt he ripped it away, ignoring her warnings and pleas.
"Oh no you don't," North cried out as he smacked her across the room, crashing against the wall and staring up at him with fright as he approached her once more.
“Get away from me!” she screamed, her wings snapping forward, what came next was the very thing she feared would happen.
He went down with barely a shout and she closed her eyes, running out of there, running to get away from what she had just done.
“Hey what’s going on!” the voice made her run faster, because what were they going to do to her when they see the result of her losing control.
She had to get out, she had to get out!
The magic in her wings swirled around and wind swept through the mines, startling her chasers and she begged it not to hurt anyone, but at the moment she knew it wouldn't listen to her. Her hooves beat against the ground as she picked up speed, eyes closed against the dust the wind was picking up but ears alert.
"She's heading towards pit!" the shout made her gulp but she didn't stop, if memory serves her right, there was a blocked off cavern that none of the other dogs went into, if she could just squeeze in there. A growl sounded to her left and with a yelp she jumped, wind surrounding her as her hooves touched wood before she was jumping again. The magic was building up around her again and she realized too late that she was over a very large pit.
'Oh' she fell.